The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
A computer disk drive retrieves and stores data by positioning magnetic read and write heads over a rotating magnetic data storage disk. The read and write heads, which are typically arranged in stacks, read data from and write data to, respectively, concentric data tracks defined on a surface of the disk. The heads may be included in structures called “sliders” onto which the read/write sensors of the magnetic heads are fabricated. The slider moves above the surface of the disk on a thin cushion of air. The read/write heads are connected to processing circuitry that operates under hardware or software control to implement the writing and reading functions. If data tracks are made narrower, more tracks will fit on a disk surface, and more data can be stored on a given disk. Generally, the width of the tracks depends on the widths of the read and write heads used. A decrease in track width caused by narrower read/write heads has allowed for increases in the recording density and data storage on disks.